(Montreal) Quebec tabled a bill on Thursday that aims to regulate, for the first time, the geological sequestration of carbon in Quebec.

The Minister Delegate for the Economy and Small and Medium Enterprises, Samuel Poulin, tabled Bill 17 in order to "regulate the research and exploitation of underground reservoirs".

Bill 17 is the first step towards creating a legislative framework to enable carbon capture and sequestration in Quebec.

"There are projects for capturing and sequestrating CO2₂ "In Quebec right now, particularly in Chaudière-Appalaches and Centre-du-Québec, they are ready, but a regulatory framework is needed for obtaining permits, for public consultation, and for closing these sites. So all of that will be addressed within this bill," said Minister Poulin in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"I want to be in parliamentary committee in the coming weeks to hear from the groups and we have started drafting the regulations so that we can start the projects fairly quickly," added the CAQ member.

If this project is adopted by the members of parliament, companies like Montreal-based Deep Sky will be able to store CO2₂ beneath the Earth's surface.

Mathieu Bouchard, vice-president at Deep Sky, was "eagerly awaiting" the announcement of the tabling of this bill.

The company is aiming for a "first phase of operation" for CO2 storage₂ at its Thetford Mines site in 2028.

“This announcement opens the door to our projects in Quebec,” explained Mathieu Bouchard, specifying that while Deep Sky has launched its first CO2 capture and sequestration project₂ in Alberta in 2024, "it's because that province already had a legislative framework."

If Bill 17 is passed in the spring, "it will give the government enough time between now and the summer to put the regulations in place. What we hope is that everything will be finalized by the end of the year before the election."

Work in progress in Thetford Mines and Bécancour

Deep Sky is conducting studies and performing various tests in the Thetford Mines region.

“We drilled an exploratory well last fall and started injection tests. We injected water, then we injected a mixture of water and CO2.”₂ " explained Mathieu Bouchard.

CO₂ injected into the ground had been captured by the Sherbrooke company Skyrenu.

According to Deep Sky, this was the first time in Quebec that CO₂ captured from the ambient air was permanently removed from the atmosphere and injected deep beneath the Earth's surface.

Deep Sky also has projects in Bécancour where "the next step is likely to be an exploratory well," said the company's vice-president, adding that his team "is currently working on determining where the well would be and what the conditions would be."

The objective of Bill 17, according to a government press release, is to regulate "strategic energy sectors, including geological storage of carbon or compressed air, geothermal energy and geological hydrogen extraction, which represent additional levers to achieve climate targets and stimulate the economic development of the regions."

Tools to combat climate change

In a report published a few years ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) recognized that carbon capture was an important tool in the fight against climate change – particularly when it comes to offsetting emissions from sectors that have no viable alternatives.

However, the report warns against "excessive expectations" and dependence on this type of technology.

The report also indicates that limiting the increase in global temperature to 1,5 degrees Celsius, the goal of the Paris Agreement, would require 32 billion tons of emissions to be sequestered through carbon capture by 2050.

"The amount of electricity needed to power these technologies would exceed current global electricity demand," the report states, adding that this amount of captured carbon would also require an increase in global spending on the technology, from 4 billion in 2022 to 3500 billion by 2050.

In other words, carbon capture and sequestration are tools, but not a panacea.